A Warning for Post-Mulroney Canada
The Conservative heavens aligned and brought us the magic of Thatcher, Reagan and Mulroney. The Gang of Three then introduced us to the new era of free trade, outsourcing and…
The Mound of Sound
Shroud of Turin, the Sequel, Coming to Your TV
In one of his final acts as Pope, Benny “the Rat” Ratzinger, signed off on another television documentary about the Shroud of Turin. We haven’t seen the Shroud for 40-years…
Shell’s Arctic Overture Gets Frosty Reception
Shell’s Arctic Challenger drilling rig is supposed to be bound for the northern waters and the oil riches said to lie beneath the sea bed. Instead it is tied up…
And How Did That Work Out For You?
It’s settled now that Iraq’s oil riches pretty much sealed Saddam Hussein’s fate. The Anglo-American conquest of Iraq was heavily an oil-driven decision. And wasn’t it nice of the Americans…
Americans Want Climate Change Protection, Just Not the Bill
Stanford researchers have found Americans believe in climate change and acknowledge the risks but just don’t want to pay for the measures that would be needed to deal with them.…
The U.S. Legacy from Iraq and Afghanistan – Only a Nuclear Attack Could be Worse
The costs and political fallout from America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are and will continue to be enormous, somewhere between 4 and 6-trillion dollars. That could be almost as…
Two Simple Questions That Might Just Give You Fits
Two seemingly simple questions. What is information? What is its relation to reality? Surely information is, in essence, a conveyance. It is the transmission of something – a thought, an…
Turning Canada’s Back on Our Warming World
We’re out. The Harper government has pulled Canada out of the U.N. convention to fight drought in the world. We’re officially the only country to exit the drought agreement. Every…
Jim Carrey’s "Cold Dead Hand"
Cold Dead Hand with Jim Carrey from Jim Carrey
China Grabs Ecuadorean Amazon for Oil
A team of Ecuadorean politicians is in Beijing. They bring gifts – more than three million hectares of pristine Amazon rainforest that is to be auctioned off to Chinese oil…
Will Climate Change Drive Britain Back Into Recession?
Britain’s Tory government is hoping desperately to avoid a “triple dip” recession on its watch. The Cameron government eked out a 0.1% growth for the three months ending March 1st,…
Welcome to Vancouver Island’s Bubbly Gulch.
Deep beneath the ocean surface, in Bubbly Gulch off Vancouver Island, a crab doing an inadvertent backflip has given scientists new information about the world’s largest source of untapped fossil…
A Warming Ocean and Albion Freezes
The British Isles have been plunged into a sudden deep freeze and researchers are blaming a rapidly warming Arctic Ocean. The Arctic, which has seen a loss of 80% of…
If We Only Had a Free Press in Canada
Imagine if Canada had journalists like BBC’s Eddie Mair here seen grilling London mayor Boris Johnson. Imagine if someone in Canada had the courage to sit down with Sideshow Steve…
Waging Class War is One Thing, Winning It Before the Other Side Knows About It is Everything
Bad news for working class America, white and blue collar – the class war they never really understood had been waged against them for the past three decades is over…
Socialism for Small Business?
John Kenneth Galbraith is remembered for declaring that the only form of socialism that would be acceptable in America was socialism for the rich. Now Britain’s Labour Party, looking for…
The Waning Days of the First Republic
It’s not difficult to conclude we are witnessing the rise of pre-revolutionary America. From the ravages of globalization and the offshoring of the nation’s manufacturing base which once nurtured America’s…
Globalization Hits American Workers’ Pocketbooks
In 2011, globalization depressed wages for non-college educated American workers 5.5%, or roughly $1,800 per annum. That’s bad but it pales in comparison with this claim: As a point of…
When America Became Amerika
The media is swamped with articles about the 10th anniversary of the Anglo-American conquest of Iraq. To those of us in the “I Told You So” camp, most of these…
Stiglitz on Singapore
Nobel laureate economist, Joe Stiglitz, has an op-ed piece in today’s New York Times in which he looks at how Singapore’s efforts to redress inequality has reaped huge benefits for…